Leto, who is slimming down dramatically to play a transexual woman, told the magazine that “your body goes through weird stages” during the fasting process.

“Sometimes it’s hard to hold onto water, for me it’s not about the most weight I can lose, it’s more to represent the character.”

Leto, who only received the news of his casting in the flick a month ago, will play a “flamboyant cross-dresser with HIV who helps Woodruff” – a Texas electrician who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Leto isn’t a stranger to dramatic weight transformations for a movie role.

In 2007, the self-professed vegan gained 62 pounds to play, Mark David Chapman, the infamous murderer of John Lennon in the film Chapter 27. Leto lost the weight from the role so quickly that he was diagnosed with gout.